Today we’d like to introduce you to Gregory King.
Gregory, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am the owner and lead Sound Designer at King Soundworks, a Los Angeles based Sound Design and Mixing company. I have been the Sound Designer and/or Mixer on over 70 films including The Founder, Saving Mr. Banks, Battleship, Hancock, Friday Night Lights and The Insider which received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound. I started as an apprentice at age 19. I came to Los Angeles when I was 27 to create the sound design for Walt Disney’s hit film The Santa Clause. It was my intention to return back to Canada after completing the film, but just as I was about to return I received a call from Billy Crystal offering me the sound work on his film Forget Paris. From there, more films came and I decided to relocate permanently to Los Angeles. I’ve been very fortunate and have been working on movies and TV shows ever since.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
In a way our biggest disadvantage is also our advantage, and that is being a small company. From 2008 to 2014 an estimated 80% of all film and television post production businesses in Los Angeles went under. The climate was a perfect storm started by the great recession and exacerbated by runaway production. These things combined to decimate the film and TV industry in L.A. We are a small shop which means we can scale and improve technologies and efficiencies very quickly.
That, coupled with a relatively small overhead and a loyal and solid client base, enabled us to survive. Being independent also makes us a creative alternative for filmmakers and television producers looking for something different and more hands-on than what the larger studios can offer. Therein lies our biggest disadvantage: We are one of a very few independent shops remaining in L.A. The majority are owned by larger conglomerates. The major studios like Warner Bros., Universal, Disney and Sony offer the same services we do, and very often they are producing those shows. So it can be difficult competing against such huge entities for the same shows that they themselves are producing.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the King Soundworks story. Tell us more about the business.
A sound designer is the person who gets to make all the fun stuff you hear on TV shows and at the movies: Tire squeals, gunshots, spaceships and explosions are some of the things we create the sounds for. We also clean up the dialogue and very often bring the actors in to our facility to re-record lines that may not have been recorded properly on set. Then we mix all those sounds and dialogue together along with the music in a room that looks like a movie theatre, but one that has a big sound console in it. My crew and I have worked with prominent filmmakers such as John Lee Hancock, Peter Berg, Michael Mann, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau, Micheal Bay, Ben Stiller, Christopher Guest, Brad Silberling, Rob Reiner and Jake and Larry Kasden. You can also hear our work on television shows such as The Long Road Home, Jane the Virgin, The Path, Rise and Wisdom of the Crowd.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think luck has played a huge role. But I believe that being lucky takes a lot of hard work and preparation so you can take advantage of those lucky opportunities when they arise. If you aren’t, then they will pass you by. Bad luck has also played a big role. In 2013 my wife was diagnosed with advanced stage metastatic colon cancer and early stage breast cancer. Her survival prognoses was 2 to 4 years. Our daughter was 6 years old at a time. I rolled back on my feature film work because of the time demands and I concentrated more on television where the schedules are more manageable. I did this to help with her healthcare and the care of our daughter. After 18 months of intense treatments the radiation and the chemotherapy did not work and the cancer continued to spread; we were told to prepare for the worst. I self-educated with the goal of becoming a cancer expert and, with the help of a great integrative doctor, we changed my wife’s diet and environment with an emphasis on natural treatments. After 18 months she is now cancer free. It will be many years before she can hopefully recover from the damage done by the chemotherapy and radiation; her strength and courage through her fight has inspired me and everyone who knows her to always look at the bright side of things.
This translated to the business where we try to only work with great clients on the projects we want to work on. So that bad luck turned a lot of things for the better.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kingsoundworks.com
- Phone: 818-787-3647
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/king_soundworks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KingSoundWorks/
- Twitter: @King_Soundworks
Image Credit:
William Thoren
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